My final post is a list of exercises to try to help manage and beat public speaking fear.  The more you put into them the more you will get out of them. Don’t hold back to build your confidence and speak with confidence.

The Public Speaking Fear Drills

On your own, or with a couple of other people in front of an audience or group of friends do the following exercises,:
With an imaginary ax, chop wood although calling to the audience, “Timber, timber, timber!” Repeat.

While churning energetically with an old-fashioned churn,shout, “Watch the butter fly! Watch the butter fly Watch the .
butter fly!” Repeat, opening the eyes as wide as achievable whilst you talk

Pretend you are ship-wrecked at sea. Although you are fighting sharks with one
hand, wave to another ship and cry, “Ship ahoy! Ship ahoy! Ship ahoy!”

Wave to a friend a block away. He can’t hear you so start waving and loudly calling, “Hello, there”

With an imaginary swatter move all around the platform saying vigorously, “Swat that fly! Swat that fly!” Swat as you
exclaim, and keep the exercise up for a full half minute.

Imagine honey bees inside your hair. brush them out with your hands as you jump around crying, “Take ‘em away!” Keep this up for twenty seconds. Repeat should you still have the energy.

Deliver a two minute “I Am the Greatest!” speech. Brag about anything you please, but actually brag. In this drill see how obnoxious and egotistical it is possible to be.

Count to fifty with spirit. Again count to fifty , this time as an angry or a happy man would count.Exaggerate this.

Imitate a few of of the following characters (in speech and manner):
a. Loud-mouthed Charlie Bratton.
b. A baseball umpire proud of his position.
c. An angry basketball player.
d. An excited fan at a basketball game.
e. A talkative intoxicated man.
f. A giggling school-girl.
g. A gossiping old woman
h. A grumpy old man

Make a spirited talk for 45 seconds on this topic: Men are far better
drivers than , or, women are much better drivers than men.

Talk for a minute about some of the following terms:
thingamajig
sidewinder
monkey-business
skullduggery
abracadabra
razzle dazzle
white elephant
heebie jeebies
raspberries
snoop
wolves
bigamy
snobbishness
puppy
yo-yos
idiosyncrasy

These drills can help anyone with public speaking fear that is not acute. When you have something more please see a qualified specialist.

Public Speaking Fear Summary

Public speaking fear is a common fear. Many of the confident speakers today have suffered from this fear. With some understanding, application of speech drill like the above or other simple techniques they have built their confidence up. If others have beaten their public speaking fear than you can to. Keep at it, trying different things, practicing and giving speeches and presentations you will beat your public speaking fear to be able to speak with confidence to any size audience

Public speaking fear is a natural fear that is common among many people. Although it is natural it came be overcome and the benefits of being a confident speaker can be enjoyed by anyone who has this natural fear. Performing speech drills is one way to overcome the public speaking fear.

My second speech drill (see previous post for the first) is for a speaker to tell and show the way to do any activity “which he is very familiar with, for example, – swimming, golf, volleyball, boxing, fishing, rowing, jumping a rope, playing basketball,etc.
Or he may well pick an object (anything) and rave about its values to an imaginary or real audience. He talks about the item as though it was worth a million dollars, pleads with men and women to get it, tells and shows them why they will need it. He puts his entire heart, body, and soul into the drill – despite the fact that realizing it’s only a drill and far much more exaggerated than any speaking he will genuinely do in public. But such drilling will pay a speaker large dividends by giving him freedom of spirit and fearless force when he does speak in public.
Speech exercises which call for violent, exaggerated physical action will help an individual lose the inhibitions which contribute to fear. They’re somewhat like a strong man lifting heavy weights. Since the strong man has become accustomed to lifting heavy weights he can lift ordinary objects as though they were just feathers. Similarly, when a speaker does heavy drills, successfully appearing in front of any any audience becomes like a walk in the park for him. When he can do ridiculous stunts just before an audience, speaking sensibly for listeners is comparatively simple.

Public Speaking Fear Drills Purpose

The purpose of drills is to assist in control and direct nervous energy as opposed to check or kill it.
Some students appear to have the mistaken idea about controlling public speaking fear. For example, one said, “When I’m up there speaking I wish I could really feel just like a block of wood.”
What type of speech could a block of wood make? Would that young man prefer being a dead mule to being a race horse eager at the bit?
Really, to speak well, we ought to feel a challenge when we face an audience. We maintain all our nervous energy, but we focus it to work positively as opposed to in a confused and distressing way.

Therefore public speaking fear is overcome and used to perform at your best when making a speech.

My next post will have some more speech drills and exercising for defeating your public speaking fear.

Another way to beat public speaking fear is through speech drills.

Public Speaking Fear Drill No. 1

Speech drilling, which requires a person to speak with exaggerated force and big gestures, will help overcome stage fright. For instance, in private practice or with other students, do the following speech laboratory exercises:
Choose a favorite hobby (your most active one.) Tell and show an imaginary audience how to take part in it. Do this with much pep. Put zip, spirit, and sparkle into your tones. Let your feelings show in your face, eyes and body. Overdo it! Feel that people must share your hobby, not tomorrow or next week, but as you talk about it.
Talk with force and pep, much louder and faster than you usually talk, and with an active body from head to toe. This is only a speech drill so don’t be afraid of high pressure or any¬thing else. As you talk nod your head vigorously (when the thought calls for it), shake your fist, or point directly and force¬fully to demonstrate a point. Make any kind of bodily move¬ments that will explain or emphasize. But make all movements big and positive. No little, easy, timid movements.

Speak earnestly with your eyes and face. Plead with them. Plead wih your whole being for your audience to believe and act upon your ideas. Be so much in earnest an audience must believe.
-Please don’t get tired or dismiss this practice as nonsense. Do the drill again and again — today, tomorrow, next week, next month. Give this exercise a few vigorous minutes often. No soft peddling, please. It is work. Sweat at it. Hit it hard, and then forget it until next time. The purpose of this drill is to cause a speaker to become so excited about his subject he forgets to be afraid. He should talk with intense excitement, like a kid with a new toy — wild with joy. Such practice – will help a speaker break the stiff shell which reserved habits have built abound him.

Try this out and see how your confidence builds and your public speaking fear starts to recede. I’ll have another drill you can use for victory over public speaking fear.

Is the fear of public speaking passed down the generations? From father to son, mother to daughter and promoted by society?

In high school Billy “acts up” when he is with the gang. But when he tries to make an announcement about basketball during assembly (with important people listening), his knees begin tap­ping like old dry bones, and his tongue is. so thick he can hardly blurt out a few stumbling words.

Then this boy who once bravely raved about fire trucks takes a deep breath and sighs to himself, “I’m glad that’s over, and I hope I never have to do it again.”

Billy grows up. He marries.

And one day Billy, Junior rushed into the house yelling. Daddy, Daddy! Look! Look at the circus parade. Elephants and everything! Look, Look!”

But Billy, Senior, who once saw red fire trucks, looked up prudishly from his newspaper, and said, “Yes, yes, son. I know. Go play with your blocks. Don’t bother Daddy.”

So the vicious circle expands.

People learn to kill their spirits. They become afraid to speak. Frequently they hear, “It is better to remain quiet and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubts.”

So even when we know we have excellent ideas we may be afraid to express them. We might make a mistake. Other people are surely smarter than we. Somebody might laugh! — or think, “What a big dummy!”

We’re not going to be that kind, of dummy. So we say nothing and remain a real dummy.

People learn the fear of public speaking largely because of the stops im­posed upon them by culture. “Be a good listener. Silence is golden,” are common ideas. And this is good advice. But people should speak up and out, too. We must observe rules and con­vention, we need stop lights, but we can’t get far without go¹ sig­nals also. We must “snap out” of this emotional straight jacket which well-meaning, but mis-undertsanding people have slapped upon us.

OK. It’s great to know the fear of public speaking is not in our genes. But what can you do about it. In my next post in my series on the fear of public speaking, I will start to look at ways to overcome the fear of public speaking.

Is anyone born with the fear of public speaking? How come many have a fear of public speaking?

Knowing that nearly everybody is tempted by fear may be consoling. Fear is learned, and many people, perhaps unconsciously, are busily teaching it.
Stage fright must be learned because people have only two natural fears at birth — the fear of falling and fear of loud noise. Then how is fear of speaking to an audience learned?   .
It could start when three-year-old Bobby comes into the house, saying, “Daddy, Daddy! Look! Come look at ,the fire trucks! They have ladders and everything! And they’re all painted red! Come on, Daddy, look at the fire trucks!”.
As the little fellow speaks he waves his arms, bugs his eyes, and -nods his head toward a front window. But in vain. Father’s long face is like a twisted prune as he looks up from the news and says dryly, “Yes, yes, son, I know. Go play with your blocks. Daddy wants to read.”
When Bobby started to school he was excited about nearly everything. He learned the rules and he learned to> lose much of his brave, lively spirit. He got a special lesson in this one day from a teacher who had argued with her boy friend the night before.
It happened at recess when Billy was raving about the picture of a ship on the wall. “What a pretty ship!” he cried. “I’d like to ride on a big boat like that. Miss Day, have you ever been on a ship?”
No answer.
“Well . . . have you?”
“Billy, little boys should be seen and not heard,” snapped the teacher.
At home Billy wants to chat with people who come to visit. But his mother knows “silence is golden,” so she sends Billy to his room to play with his silent golden blocks.
Other people say, “You talk too much, boy. Don’t ask so many silly questions.”
After feeling several wet blankets Bill’s lively spirit is curbed.
After all, he doesn’t want to be odd, so he won’t talk so much. Nobody’s going to call him “Windy.” So he actually becomes afraid to speak freely.

My next post will continue on how the fear of public speaking is learnt. I will in this series on the fear of public speaking provide some tips to overcoming it to be a confident speaker.